Money matters for the country’s progress along with it is the most trusted material to test human temperament for easy going of a life. Every year the government is duty bound to put together quantity of money for spending, meet expenses and financing for the country’s growth and advancement and for this regard budgeting of an amount in hand and to create ways to generate money for the growth of a country is very vital for the well-being of the state for sustaining future economic challenges.
As every country around the globe doing the same practices so there is no exception for Pakistan to earmark the estimated budget on yearly basis for the wheel of economy which including upgrading of natural and human resources, capital markets growth and making efforts to stir country’s towards technological or innovative change. It is a duty of every government then and now to lead countrymen by opening ways of jobs, skill development, expand business by helping every sectors. This year budget of 2021-22 is the third announcement of Prime Minister Imran Khan-led PTI government, though it faced much resentment from the opposition and other concerns but significantly the business community and the corporate sector of Pakistan firmly appreciated the current budget which is merely focused on development of Pakistan.
According to the available data, the PTI economic team guided by the Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin presented the Rs 8.48 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2021-22 in the National Assembly on Friday the 11th of this month. While presenting the budget he says the total expenditure budgeted for next year stood at Rs 8.487 billion taking an increase of 19 percent higher than the last year’s budget size of Rs 7,136 billion. He said there were a lot of difficulties but this government had laid the ground for the economy to revive and now “it is going towards development and prosperity”. The salient facts of budget includes allocating Rs 2,135 billion for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) with an increase of 37 percent from last year’s allocation. As the government seriously looking forward for the growth target, so the fiscal year 2022 the government is aiming for a goal of 4.8 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Tax target for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been set at Rs 5,829 billion a 17.4 percent higher than last year’s target of Rs 5,963 billion. It has been decided to keep inflation for the upcoming fiscal year at 8.2 percent, which is significantly higher than the 6.5 percent targeted last fiscal. It is a good news that there was no new tax being imposed on the salaried class in the budget, whereas the minimum wage has increased to Rs20,000 maximum, moreover pensions and federal government employees’ salaries will see a 10 percent raise.
For education promotion Rs66 billion will be given to the Higher Education Commission for the growth of education and additional Rs 44 billion will be provided for the development fund. For the agriculture growth Rs 12 billion will be allocated and there is Rs 118 billion to be given for power distribution projects. Under Covid-19 outbreak as the pandemic fear still persists, the government has decided to pay Rs 100 billion for Covid-19 Emergency Fund with $1.1 billion for vaccines procurement. There are also Rs 61 billion for Viability Gap Fund and Rs 14 billion for Climate Change mitigation projects. Under the announcements current expenditure budgeted for fiscal year 2022 stands at Rs 7,523 billion up from Rs 6,345 billion last year. Under the expenditure Rs 1,370 billion will be spend on Defence Services, while Rs 3,060 billion will be spent on interest payments. It has been noted that expenditure on Defence Services makes up around 16 percent of total expenditure budgeted for fiscal 2022, down from 18 percent last fiscal.
Data of budget also shows, special development packages have been included under the regional equalisation programme for the next fiscal year to ensure the development of deprived areas and bring them at par with other developed regions of the country. The programme includes accelerated development plan for southern Balochistan, the Karachi Transformation Plan, socio-economic development of Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh development plan for more than 14 districts, and enhanced allocation for newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Several projects were being launched under public-private partnership, including Sialkot-Kharian, Sukkur-Hyderabad, Kharian-Rawalpindi, Balkasar-Mianwali and Muzaffargarh-Mianwali roads, Quetta-Karachi-Chaman (N-25 highway), Karachi Circular Railway and Karachi-Pipri Freight Corridor. Rs200m earmarked for the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Rs2.35 billion for the Petroleum Division, Rs19.245 billion for the Planning, Development and Reforms Division, Rs590m for the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, Rs30.025 billion for the Railways Division, Rs493m for the Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Division, Rs4.025 billion for the Revenue Division, Rs8.3 billion for the Science and Technological Research Division.
There are much of other benefits and amounts suggested for the development of a country under this new budget, which one can go through government websites. But we can hope to see, that the said funding amount will be use up for right and fruitful purposes for the growth of a country and meet future challenges ahead like meeting debt issues under International Monetary Fund conditionality and of image building of a country under Financial Action Task Force concern.